Correctional Service Canada requires full return to office

Thousands of Correctional Service Canada (CSC) will no longer have any work from home options as they have been required to report to the workplace five times a week, according to a union.

This applies to roughly 7,000 employees across the country who have been classified as “front-line workers,” according to the Union of Safety and Justice Employees (USJE), according to a report from the Ottawa Citizen.

They include staff in correctional services, education and library science, electronics, nursing and general labour and trades groups, some of which are represented by other federal unions, the union said. 

“They’re basically saying they’re front-line workers, they must be on site five days a week,” said USJE national president David Neufeld, in the report. “What we’re asking is for them to use a flexible and nuanced approach and not a top-down approach.”

He noted that managers would consider requests to work from home on a case-by-case basis.

The mandate comes in the wake of a broader return-to-office policy for federal public servants under the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat. The full implementation of the federal government’s return-to-office mandate for workers – announced earlier this year – is took effect in September.

However, CSC’s unique operational needs have led to stricter rules for its workforce, said a source from the institution, according to Ottawa Citizen.

“Certain employees are ineligible for the hybrid work model given their duties are primarily performed in person or because of operational requirements required to uphold public safety,” a CSC spokesperson said.

Union opposed full return to office

The development did not sit well with USJE.

“A lot of our members work in very difficult working conditions, for example, in our institutions, where there’s always high stress,” Neufeld said, adding that CSC had required managers to be on-site almost every day. “If there’s a portion of their work that they’re able to do outside of that particular place or parole office or community correctional centre … That’s what we’re asking for.”

He cites parole officers, who spend about half of their time writing reports, as an example.

“It’s not taking away from time with the inmates or the offenders in the community that they’re working with, it’s basically taking some of the tasks and responsibilities that they do in the workplace and just shifting them in a remote way to help produce better work, better productivity and also, of course, help improve overall mental wellbeing,” Neufield said.

The union said it will be “actively contesting this decision,” said Neufield.

“Whether you are in the regions or at (national headquarters), there is a lot of good work that can be done from home. We’ve already proven that,” he said in the report.

Two unions called for a formal probe into the federal government’s RTO mandate for federal public service workers.